Team Peru 2017 - Day One

I love flying in the evening. As the sun sets there is magical light that appears through the sky. At this time of the year, the clouds are big and billowing over the Yucatan and the flight from the U.S. to Latin America often runs into large thunder clouds and high altitude storms.

Our Team Peru trip is just getting started. The volunteers are arriving and we have a full itinerary of last minute errands in preparation. Yesterday, however, we made a special trip to the community of Nueva Esperanza for a birthday celebration with a very important little girl. Ines, the namesake for the Ines Project for Medically Fragile Children, turns thirteen on Sunday and we had a surprise party with her family. 

The trip to Ines' house is anything but straightforward. High in the hills outside of the formal part of the City of Lima sits the invasion community of Nueva Esperanza or New Hope. The community has changed considerably over the past 25-years (the time I've been visiting the area), but a few things remain fixed - there is no formal water or hygienic waste disposal. For many of the families living in the area, life is a constant struggle.

Our time with Ines and her family was short - only a little over an hour - but we had an opportunity to reconnect. It was a great way to start this trip. Today, we will be finalizing our preparations and starting our 25th Team Peru Service Learning trip with over 25 volunteers from around N. American and the U.K. This is going to be a great week.

​Stay tuned for more updates. Thanks for all of your ongoing support.